I’m posting on the Daily Writing Tips blog. Hopefully, this will turn into a permanent gig!
My first post is Show, Don’t Tell. Check it out! Leave a comment, if you’re so inclined…
🙂
Writing gig
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Monthly Archives: May 2007
Memorial Day weekend wrap-up
Well, it was a long and relaxing weekend here–I hope it was the same for you!
On Saturday, Rand and I visited with one of his friends in the Rochester-ish area. We had pizza, listened to music, browsed around Barnes and Noble (where I was sucked in by the bargain books after deciding not to buy anything), and generally had an all-around groovy time.
The rest of the weekend was spent reading, watching DVDs, eating junk food, walking in the park (we saw baby ducks!), sleeping too much, and doing various household-tidying tasks.
I’ve also been up to some writing-related tasks…nothing terribly exciting, but I’ll be giving you more details soon.
I got the invite to my 15-year class reunion, which makes me feel all kinds of old.
That’s it for now. Look for more detailed posts on what I’ve been reading and watching soon. 😉
Happy Anniversary!
A whole year? Already? 😉
Happy day, you guys. I love you!
Once, there was this girl who…
During the summer of 1994, I was driving around the country teaching cheerleading to middle school and high school students. I worked for Elite Cheerleading Organization, based in Pittsburgh. The company sent us out around the country in groups of 2, 3, and sometimes 4.If you were lucky, you had someone in your group who was 21 or over. You got a nice, shiny, reliable rental car.
If you weren’t, you drove one of the “Elite Fleet.” These were crappy old used cars. IWewere warned about making sure the oil was always full, and told horror stories about what would happen if the oil leaked, drained, or burned away to empty.
The rental cars usually had cassette players in them. The Elite Fleet, well, you were lucky if the radio worked.
When the radio did work, we usually listened to the Top 40/pop stations. Because, well, it was the best compromise. And Top 40 stations are repetitive enough under ordinary circumstances, but y’know, we were driving across multiple states. That means switching the Top 40 station to a NEW one every time we lost the signal. And we were trapped. I mean, sure, sometimes we turned the radio off, and sometimes we got lucky…I remember one trip with a girl named Cindy. Our conversation went something like this:
Cindy: So, what do you want to listen to?
Me: Um, I dunno. Whatever.
Cindy (tentatively): Well, I kinda like…um...country.
Me: No way! Me too! Squee!
Not that we didn’t get sick of that eventually, too…but at least it was something different.
As a result, most of the songs that were on the radio that summer make me want to run screaming from the room. I browsed through the weekly charts from that summer to jog my memory. Here’s some of what I’m talking about:
All I Wanna Do (Sheryl Crow)
Fantastic Voyage (Coolio)
Here Comes the Hotstepper (Ini Kamoze)
I Swear (All 4 One)
I’ll Make Love to You (Boyz II Men)
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm (Crash Test Dummies)
Wild Night (John Mellencamp)
Mr. Jones (Counting Crows)
Regulate (Warren G)
Shine (Collective Soul)
Baby I Love Your Way (Big Mountain)
Don’t Turn Around (Ace of Base)
Crazy (Aerosmith)
Round Here (Counting Crows)
Tootsee Roll (69 Boyz)
Now, whether or not I would have liked these songs under ordinary circumstances is irrelevant. Some songs from that summer didn’t stick with me…I can barely remember them. Others, I don’t mind so much. These, for whatever reason, have been burned into my brain until the end of time. That All 4 One version of I Swear? *shudder* 5 weeks at number one.
So, what songs have you wished would get sucked into a black hole of oblivion, never to be heard from again? 🙂
More on the Dixie Chicks
So, Lady Turpentine asked why I thought the documentary “Shut Up & Sing” was flawed, so here are my thoughts.
Like I said, it was interesting, and it succeeded in reminding me how much I like the Dixie Chicks. It did have a few problems though…it jumped around in time in ways that I found distracting. Also, it lost focus and meandered at times. Rand commented that it was more of a VH-1 documentary (minus the voice over), and I would agree with that.
Right after watching it, though, I went down to the basement into my boxes of CDs and brought out my Dixie Chicks albums. I went to iTunes and downloaded Taking the Long Way, and now I’m inspired to create a guide to the Dixie Chicks for anyone who might be interested in hearing what they have to offer other than “Not Ready to Make Nice.”
Wide Open Spaces (1998) was the Chicks’ first commercially succesful release. The title track won one of the country music awards, and the ladies impressed me by calling the songwriter to the stage to accept the award.
As is usually the case in Nashville, there is very little on this album written by the Chicks themselves, but their musical and vocal talent is clear.
Download me: Wide Open Spaces, I Can Love You Better, There’s Your Trouble, You Were Mine, Tonight the Heartache’s On Me
Fly (1999) allowed the girls a little bit more creative freedom. The song Cowboy Take Me Away, written by Emily Robison for her husband, is a sweet, touching love song. The girls got a lot of attention for numbers like Goodbye Earl, an upbeat, irreverent anthem about the murder of an abusive husband. (I don’t have access to YouTube at the moment, but I’d recommend checking out the video. It’s hilarious. Natalie Maines’ husband, Heroes’ Adrian Pasdar, makes a brief appearance as a police officer. ADDED–here’s the video)
I like this album a lot, so recommending songs is gonna be tough…
Download me: Goodbye Earl, Cowboy Take Me Away, If I Fall You’re Goin’ Down With Me, Cold Day in July, Let Him Fly
Home (2002) is a less polished “back to our roots” kind of album. The first track (and lead single ) Long Time Gone is an upbeat bluegrassy number. This is also the album that features the cover of Stevie Nicks’ Landslide, which I love on the album. There was a pop radio version that I found incredibly annoying. The other track I simply love from this album is Travelin’ Soldier, which is simply heartbreaking. It still makes me cry.
Download Me: Long Time Gone, Landslide, Travelin’ Soldier
Taking the Long Way (2006) is, of course, their current album. The Chicks worked with producer Rick Rubin, who you might remember was responsible for Johnny Cash’s last album. As I said yesterday, this album is personal, raw and emotional, and because of that, it’s beautiful. I’m only on my first or second listen to these songs, but those are my thoughts so far.
Download me: Not Ready to Make Nice, Taking the Long Way, Easy Silence, Lullaby
Save Veronica!
Esther posted an excellent plea to save Veronica Mars. As you know, I agree with pretty much everything she said. Seasons one and two were absolutely brilliant TV. The theme song rocks, hard.
I have just one thing to add to her list: Jason Dohring’s character arc (as Logan) during season one was remarkable. I hated that spoiled, rich little punk with fiery passion at the beginning of the season, and by the end? My heart ached for him. That’s good TV.
I’m not holding my breath…I’ve had my hopes dashed on the rocks too many times…but it’s worth a shot. If you can, help out in the effort to Save Veronica!
Reading, watching, listening
Reading: Coal Run by Tawni O’Dell. Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis. Just finished The Amber Spyglass, will be writing about it soon. On deck: Lisey’s Story by Stephen King.
Watching: 28 Weeks Later (I wasn’t crazy about it); Thank You for Smoking (not sure how I felt about it. I didn’t love it.); Shut Up & Sing (a flawed documentary, but I enjoyed it.)
Lost, Heroes (season finale tonight!!), American Idol (I was wrong…bye bye Melinda. I was sad to see her go, but I suspect it’ll be better for her career in the long run).
I have several episodes of Veronica Mars to watch…I’m bummed about the news that it won’t be coming back next season, but not surprised.
Listening: The Dixie Chicks, Taking the Long Way. I’m not all the way through the album yet, but I’m loving it. It’s raw, emotional, powerful stuff.
Speaking of iLike…
So if you care to find out what it’s all about, jennimi wrote about it here, and you can see my profile here.
Hahahahaha
So I’m playing the iLike challenge, where you listen to a song clip and have to identify the title or artist. I got one that gave me the following options for artists:
a)The Strokes
b)The Vines
c)The Killers
d)The Hives
Aren’t they all the same band? Can you say I have no idea???
Peanut butter review
There doesn’t seem to be any specific target date for the return of Peter Pan Peanut Butter to store shelves. The last release I saw said it would be at least June…and so, rather than mope, I set off on a quest to find an acceptable substitute.
The first thing I did was try the other two of the “big three”–Skippy and Jif.
(all flavors are creamy. I’m a creamy peanut butter kind of gal.)
Skippy has a good flavor. It’s peanutty and not too sweet. It is, however, a little on the thick side.
Jif is sweeter than both Peter Pan and Skippy, and it has a different flavor. This flavor, I’ve since learned, is from the molasses they add to the peanut butter. I don’t mind the flavor, but I find Jif’s consistency to be its main drawback. It’s thinner than the other peanut butters, and I think that’s what I like least about it.
Rand brought home some Jif w/honey, which isn’t bad.
Reese’s Peanut Butter has a good flavor and consistency, but it’s a little on the expensive side.
Smucker’s Natural peanut butter is actually quite tasty. It has the drawback of, well, being an all-natural peanut butter. You have the oil separation-stirring thing, and the refrigeration thing…making spreading this on anything nearly impossible. It’s great for eating off a spoon, or using in recipes that call for natural peanut butter.
So far, though, I’d have to say that the blue ribbon of peanut butters that aren’t Peter Pan has to go to Skippy Natural“. It’s not natural in the same sense that the Smucker’s is–it has sugar and palm oil added, but it doesn’t have any hydrogenated oils or other chemical/artificial ingredients. It’s peanuts, sugar, palm oil and salt. It has a great flavor and it isn’t too thick. Skippy Natural wins!